Richard Hatch, who originated the role of Battlestar Galactica‘s Apollo, died on Tuesday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 71.

Hatch’s early career included the role of Phillip Brent on the daytime soap opera All My Children, while his first major primetime role was in the late 1970s’ The Streets of San Francisco, where he succeeded the exiting Michael Douglas.

On Battlestar Galactica, Glen A. Larson’s big budget sci-fi series for ABC that bowed in 1978, he created the role of Captain Apollo, for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination. That ran for a total of 21 episodes (including an extended pilot, which was shown in theaters with Sensurround technology), before meeting cancellation.

Hatch’s TV credits went on to include arcs on Dynasty, Santa Barbara and Ronald D. Moore’s 2004 Battlestar Galactica reboot, where he would recur as political activist Tom Zarek. Moore remembered Hatch in a Twitter posting, as did BSG vet Edward James Olmos:

Richard Hatch was a good man, a gracious man, and a consummate professional. His passing is a heavy blow to the entire BSG family.